


The Pure One

by Feytwilight



Series: The One and Only Rumplestiltskin [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-19
Updated: 2015-06-01
Packaged: 2018-03-31 07:17:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3969183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Feytwilight/pseuds/Feytwilight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Rumple!!  I love you…”  Rumplestiltskin didn’t hear the last desperately whispered words from his beloved before the darkness swallowed him…literally.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Rumple!!  _I love you…_ ” He didn’t hear the last desperately whispered words from his beloved before the darkness swallowed him…literally. Rumplestiltskin opened his eyes, surprised that he was still alive, or at least still aware. He then briefly wondered if he had gone blind as he could see nothing but darkness blacker and denser than the mere absence of light could account for.  He could almost _feel_ the dark lapping at the warmth from his marrow. 

“Belle?”  He called softly, nervously if he was honest with himself. He raised himself to a sitting position on the rough freezing surface beneath him.  A familiar twittering, echoing laugh answered him, followed by an equally familiar figure materializing out of the surrounding blackness. Both the figure and his own body had become strangely illuminated within the miasma.

“No Belles here, dearie, only us monsters!” The golden-scaled copy of Rumplestiltskin trilled as it pranced forward with a sinister grin.

“How disappointing…” Rumplestiltskin drawled as he painlessly rose to a stand and faced the mock Imp with Mr. Gold’s trademark smirk. “Coming to gloat during my last moments… Textbook villainy.” The Imp smiled knowingly.

“Well you would know wouldn’t you? You helped write the book after all, not that it helped you.  You just aren’t hero material.”   The Imp taunted. Rumplestiltskin snorted.

“Would you mind leaving me to die in peace? I’ve no wish to look at your face any longer than I must.”  Rumplestiltskin said with a sneer.  The Imp twirled in place and bowed while gesturing to itself with one clawed hand.

“Don’t like what you see dearie? You always did pretend to cover your mirrors because of others ability to scry on you though them, but that isn’t the whole truth now is it? What you truly hated was seeing the physical manifestation of your own rotting, contaminated soul. Such a pitiful coward. You were never worthy of wielding my power.” The Imp shook its head disparagingly.

“If I wanted a therapy session I’d have visited the cricket. Just what do you want from me, Dark One!?” He snapped angrily. “You already own my heart and soul, what more could you possibly want?”  The Imp looked at him appraisingly.

“You managed to hold me at bay for three centuries, far longer than any mortal before you.  I believe that that deserves something particularly _special_.” It twirled one finger in the air mockingly. Rumplestiltskin swallowed audibly but stood his ground, his eyes steady.  “Imagine what I will do to your dearest Belle when you’re safely gone. I promise your face will be the last thing she sees!”  Rumplestiltskin saw red.

“You won’t touch her!”  He snarled, readying to attack the Dark One, as useless as that would be.  The Imp clapped it’s hands, thrilled beyond measure. 

“I’m afraid you won’t have a say, dearie.” The Dark One slapped a hand against it’s chest.  “The loooove you had in your heart may have kept you strong, but without your Bae, your True Love, your hope and sanity; you have nothing left to fight with. I will take your poor, despairing soul and make it a part of me, forever.”  The Imp giggled gleefully as black tendrils shot out of the darkness and began wrapping themselves around Rumplestiltskin.  Thorns grew from the tendrils burying themselves deeply inside him. He screamed in agony as he struggled. He reached for his magic, the bottomless well that had dwelt within him for so long and found…nothing, emptiness.  The thorns _twisted_ , and Rumple could feel his very essence shred, his existence being absorbed by something far, far older than him and far, far crueler than he could ever have conceived being, even in his darkest moments.  He heard voices gibbering as pieces of his self disappeared, his own memories and thoughts being subsumed and replaced by Something else’s. His last fleeting feelings and thoughts were of Belle and the hope that she would have heeded his warning and run as far away from him as she could before it was too late... Then…suddenly, the agony stopped. The darkness was swiftly being pulled from him and his essence being returned to him.  His shattered soul was whole once more and he felt warm, _truly_ warm for the first time in centuries.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

_"No one could ever love you…"_

_His papa had never said those words to him, but his actions had shouted them louder than they could ever have been spoken…_  
_His mother, well she’d never had the chance, she’d been the first to abandon him…_  
_Milah had often said those words to him, casually, callously, but honestly too…_  
_Bae, the son he had abandoned in a moment of fear that he would endlessly regret, had offered him forgiveness, but not the love he'd once felt for him as a child, never that; having shared one mind with his boy he knew it was something he didn’t deserve…_  
_Even Cora chose to rip out her own heart rather than give her love to him…_  
_There was Zelena, but obsession and envy were not love…certainly not any kind of love that he would want any part of…_  
_And then there was Belle; beautiful, smart, and kind, how could such a person possibly love him? It had to be a lie, a fluke; he was worthless, utter dust at her feet…_

_No one could ever love him. Life had taught him as much over and over again…_

Rumplestiltskin awoke from his distressing dreams, the preservation spell dissipating in a colorful mist about him as he blinked open his warm brown eyes. “B-Belle?” He called out automatically as he searched the shadowed room he laid in, the bedroom in his pink mansion his mind quickly supplied. A soft groan sounded beside him, surprising him.

  
“Rum…come back…to me.” Belle’s voice whispered brokenly in her sleep. Rumplestiltskin slowly sat up and looked at the sleeping beauty that lay next to him on their bed. Her auburn curls sprawled in tangles across the pillow, framing a face almost as lovely in sleep as it was awake. He needed to once more see those fiery blue eyes that had lit up the dark existance he'd dwelled within for so long.

  
He was different now; not the cowardly spinner, nor the Dark One, but something…else, someone new. He’d finally been able to acclimate to centuries’ worth of knowledge, experience, and guilt from the darkest of his deeds, all thanks to some impromptu help he wished he could have done without. He gently moved off the bed, but somehow managed to jostle Belle just enough to wake her. She opened her bright blue eyes in shock and reached out to the space beside her. Finding it empty she panicked and switched on the light on the bedside table. She then spotted him at the foot of the bed.

  
“Rumple! You’re awake!” She cried joyfully while jumping up and running to him, the nightgown that he had given her flowing about her. She threw her arms around his neck as he hugged her back in return warily. “You’ve been asleep for so long.” She murmured into his shoulder.

  
“How long?” He asked quietly. She moved back from him then and stared up at him.

  
“Almost two months.” She said simply. Rumplestiltskin moved away from her and sat on the edge of the bed.

  
“And you’ve been with me this whole time?” He asked. She kneeled on the floor beside him and put a hand on his knee.

  
“Yes, how are you feeling? Are you…okay?” She asked, worried. He nodded.

  
“I’m fine, or I will be. But Belle, why are you here?” He asked. Belle frowned.

  
“Here?” She asked.

  
“With…me?” Rumple asked slowly. Belle’s eyes began tearing up.

  
“How can you ask such a thing?” She asked. Rumple placed his hand on top of hers.

  
“I…you don’t have to feel obligated, to care for me, be with me, I’d grant you a divorce...” She pulled away from him and stood up.

  
“True Love is forever.” She declared fiercely. _It’s forever, dearie_. Words from their past echoed back between them. Rumple clasped his hands together in his lap, his shoulders hunched in.

  
“You still love me, even after everything, even after Will Scarlet?” He asked, looking up at her for confirmation. Belle smiled briefly.

  
“Yes you silly man, I have always loved you and always will, although I tried my hardest to fight it...I failed miserably, thankfully. And Will and I, we needed comfort, and found it with each other for a time, but it wasn’t love.” She stated. Rumple looked flabbergasted.

  
“Then you really want to be with…me?” He questioned wonderingly. Belle scowled.

  
“When will you stop doubting me, doubting us?” She asked. He gestured up at her and then at the both of them.

  
“I want this; I want you, more than anything, more than power-” Belle held up a hand to stop him.

  
“ _Don’t_ lie to me Rumple; we are long past that.” She interrupted angrily. Rumple lowered his eyes.

  
“It isn’t a lie.” He said lowly. Belle glared at him.

  
“That gauntlet showed me where your heart truly lies, and it isn’t with me.” She said, saddened.

  
“If that were true, we wouldn’t be True Love.” Rumplestiltskin said. Belle flicked a hand in agitation.

  
“Then tell me why, why did that gauntlet lead me straight to your dagger?” She asked, desperately. Rumple looked up at her earnestly.

  
“The gauntlet shows a person’s greatest weakness, which is usually the thing they love most. My dagger _is_ my weakness, well was, but you, you have always been my _strength_ , that gauntlet could never have led to you, dagger or no, power or no; you my love, are the only thing in my life worth existing for, worth fighting for, you could never be my weakness.” Rumple declared. Belle was silent for several moments as she digested the information. She looked away, overcome by her thoughts and emotions. If what he said was true, and it must be…she had truly betrayed him in the worst possible of ways. She swallowed her guilt and looked back at him, her eyes shinning.

  
“Then fight for me Rumple, fight for us. Didn’t you tell me that True Love had to be fought for?” She asked, her accent thickening. He nodded solemnly. “Well no one has fought harder than us.” She concluded with a warm smile. Rumple rose from the bed and wrapped Belle in his arms as tightly as he could, hoping against hope that there was a chance for them now that the darkness that had infested him was finally gone from his heart. Maybe they could finally find a piece of Happily Ever After for themselves. Maybe…maybe someone could actually love…him, and with his heart now restored, he might finally be able to believe that.

  
“I _love_ you Belle.” He growled passionately. She gripped him just as tightly if not more so, and made a promise to herself. She would never let him go again, never send him away, never betray him. Because this, this is what happiness was, and she would never let it escape her grasp again. Rumplestiltskin was worth fighting for and always would be.

  
“And I love you, my Rumple.”  Belle whispered just before they shared True Love's kiss.

_Someone could love him after all..._


End file.
